An interestingly pale animal - was ZSL doing Marwell a favour by holding a Siberian tiger for them at the time? I never remember there being anything other than generic zoo tigers in the old Lion House.
I think its the 'washed-out' quality of the photo(no offence Gigit! ) as Marwell definately sent no Tiger to ZSL in their first few years(possibly never?) It is most likely one of the pair of generic (or Indian?) tigers that occupied this cage- the one nearest the elephant house) for many years in this era. One was called Laksmi, forget the other.
Thanks for posting this photo gigit. I've searched for pics of the lion house everywhere, but there don't seem to be many. I made many visits prior to its demolition when i was about 7 and although i can remember the inside, my memories of the outside cages are much more hazy.
From memory there were either two or three of the big semi-circular cages like this Tiger cage, and one or two smaller rectangular ages set between them. The service entrance to the interior of the Lion House was between them also. What I cannot remember is whether there were 2 big and 1 smaller cages, or 3 big, and 2 smaller cages.(I think it was the latter) Anyone? At the other end of the House to this was also one smaller covered outdoor cage set into the sidewall of the house, at one time this housed Snow Leopard.
Inside the House was a wide service area running the length of the house behind the inside cages. Access from inside to outside for the cats was via a series of overhead arched tunnels with solid floor and barred sides and roof, called the 'bridge dens'. The cats that had outdoor access, like the pair of Tigers, weren't onshow indoors as well, and vice versa. Most of the indoor cats seemed to be permanently onshow inside and there was very rarely any change-over of species between the outdoor and indoor cages. For cage-cleaning, the indoor cats were usually 'juggled' around, being moved to a temporarily empty cage next door. The outdoor cats were shut on the bridge dens I think.
These tigers usually had access to one of the bridge dens in the daytime too and if you were walking inside in the service area in the house, they would often be found resting quietly just above your head.
I think that the main row of cages outside the Lion House actually consisted of six cages; four large ones with the semi-circular end and two smaller rectangular cages.
I too remember the small cage built into side of the Lion House; I saw my first ever snow leopard there when I was a very young child. It was used for lynx in later years.
I especially remember a Temminck’s golden cat in one of this building’s interior cages; this specimen had been presented to the zoo by E. P. Gee (author of “Wild Life of India”) and was originally kept in the old North Mammal House before being moved to the Lion House.
Thanks for the information Pertinax and Tim. I hadn't realised there were that many outside enclosures, I can only recall seeing lions and tigers outside, though several other species inside.
